Theoretical expectations for the muonʹs electric dipole moment Original Research Article

We examine the muonʹs electric dipole moment dμ from a variety of theoretical perspectives. We point out that the reported deviation in the muonʹs g−2 can be due partially or even entirely to a new physics contribution to the muonʹs electric dipole moment. In fact, the recent g−2 measurement provides the most stringent bound on dμ to date. This ambiguity could be definitively resolved by the dedicated search for dμ recently proposed. We then consider both model-independent and supersymmetric frameworks. Under the assumptions of scalar degeneracy, proportionality, and flavor conservation, the theoretical expectations for dμ in supersymmetry fall just below the proposed sensitivity. However, nondegeneracy can give an order of magnitude enhancement, and lepton flavor violation can lead to dμ∼10−22 e cm, two orders of magnitude above the sensitivity of the dμ experiment. We present compact expressions for leptonic dipole moments and lepton flavor violating amplitudes. We also derive new limits on the amount of flavor violation allowed and demonstrate that approximations previously used to obtain such limits are highly inaccurate in much of parameter space.